Obesity in Children

I mentioned that my blog will have stuff about issues I am concerned about, and this is one of them – Obesity in children. 

http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/Chennai/article596488.ece?homepage=true  

Check out the above article in the newspaper – A survey shows alarming levels of obesity among Indian children. All of us are aware of this trend as we read about it often in all health related articles, but most of us are helpless when it comes to diet restriction in children. I know a kid who is obese for her age, and the doctor had advised her strict diet restrictions. The child’s mother uses different measuring scoops to cook for her daughter, and becomes very hysteric when the child has eaten an extra mouthful!

It is heart-breaking to see the kid at the table – wanting to eat a little more of her favourite dish, but is afraid to ask for more as she is very scared of her mother.  We adults ourselves find it difficult to maintain a strict diet regime, so forget about children.

I want to give the example of my own son who is now in high school. He was very plump when he was younger. All his teachers at school loved his chubby cheeks, and he would always come home red faced complaining that his teachers and friends pinched his cheeks! He was a cute little bubbly boy, and we loved the way he looked, and as he looked healthy, I never gave a thought about him being obese. My family, friends and everyone in the apartment adored him and most of his friends called him ‘Ganesha’. There is no other bliss to a mother than having her child loved by all people around her, and so I just gave him everything to eat to remain that way! He loved to eat, and I would cook or buy him anything he wanted!

But, slowly things changed. He was often very tired, he would not go out to play, would skip even march-past practice in school, and always gave an excuse to skip his games class (I heard about his later from his teacher). We lived on the third floor of our apartment, and he would take the lift as he could not climb the stairs. When we took him to the beach to play, he would just sit beside us, and not even budge to play in the water. He hated to walk, and most importantly, I found it extremely difficult to buy shirts and trousers his size!

I finally woke up and tried all means to reduce his weight. I hired a yoga teacher to teach him at home, but he could not even squat on the floor, and refused to take up more classes. Cycling was his favourite sport, and after two rounds around our apartment, he would come back home panting. He would then be at the TV or the computer. I tried to give him less food – but it was just not working as he would always cry that he is hungry, and I could not bear it.

Well, after a lot of thought on various aspects, we put him in a boarding school where games and sport were given high priority. TV and Computers were not allowed in the school. He had to run atleast 800 mts every day, play football and tennis. We found a drastic change in just two months. When I visited him, I could not even recognize my son. He had shed all his excess weight, and was as trim as ever. He was active and healthy, and so were all other students in the school. Well, now he has also learnt swimming in his spare time!

I am not saying this to put your children in boarding schools. What I would like to stress is that is easy for children to reduce weight if they are exposed to a lot of physical activity, and not diet restriction alone. So, if your child is obese, please ensure that they run and play in school, at home or anywhere else they get an opportunity. From my experience, physical exercise alone will bring in long term results.

Cheers!